Privatization Proposal for 2 Airports Dies

Responding to a public outcry, Ventura County Supervisors John Flynn and Kathy Long have effectively killed a plan to apply to a federal airport privatization program that could have made money for the county.

Flynn said he and Long will tell other members of the Board of Supervisors at their Tuesday meeting that the new program is a dead issue.

“The public said very loud last [Thursday] night that they were angry they had not been included in the public process earlier on,” Long said. “I solidly agree with them. It was handled very poorly.”

County supervisors were supposed to decide Nov. 11 whether to move ahead with a four- to six-month study, at a cost of up to $90,000, to evaluate a public-private partnership for the Camarillo and Oxnard airports.

Staff also recommended the county submit a preliminary application Dec. 1 to the federal privatization program, which would allow the county to use airport profits for other programs, and request operators to submit proposals.

But members of the county airport authority, which consists of Flynn, Long, two city council members each from Camarillo and Oxnard and two public representatives, voted unanimously Thursday to recommend that supervisors abandon pursuing the Federal Aviation Administration’s program.

Because a four-fifths vote would be needed to overturn this recommendation, “It would be senseless to bring it up” at the supervisors’ meeting, Flynn said.

The county has already paid $49,000 for a consultant who examined the idea, making the lesson a costly one.

“You learn right away that even though the dollars may look good, if you don’t . . . involve the people in the decision-making process, the dollars turn sour real quick,” Long said.

In hindsight, county officials said they would have taken a much different approach.

“We would have established better communication with the people involved,” said Terry Dryer, the county’s deputy chief administrative officer.

“I think we have learned that there is an interest in looking at the airports and seeing if there are different ways to operate them that would satisfy everybody and have some benefits,” Dryer said.

Although there was vehement opposition to the program, most people expressed interest in the idea of privatization without the program.

Council members from both Camarillo and Oxnard have expressed interest in looking at management options in the future in an effort to upgrade the facilities and services.

“There seems to be enough interest expressed in remodeling the house, so to speak, that we should look into it,” Long said.

Flynn, however, said the dust needs to settle first.

“There might be some interest in a contract with a private firm simply to operate the airport,” he said. “But things have to settle down right now. We won’t be discussing it for some time.

“If and when it does come up for discussion, certainly everyone is going to be part of the information-gathering process,” Flynn said. “The way in which this pilot program was pursued was a horrible way to do anything.”

Accused of using “back-room” politics, county officials came under heavy criticism because although their staff began looking into the program in July, city officials did not learn about the plan until Oct. 3.

They were also condemned for committing $90,000 from an airport fund to pay for consultants on the proposal--an amount $10,000 under the sum for which review by the airport authorities and approval by the Board of Supervisors would have been necessary.

As it stands, up to $49,000 must come from the airport fund to pay for consultant services already rendered.

The airport authority will discuss at its Nov. 13 meeting how to make sure its members hear of such spending in the future.

“It appears the potential for abuse is too great and perhaps we need to reassess the level of independent financial authority that these bureaucrats have,” said Camarillo City Councilman Bill Liebmann.

In fact, Flynn said he can’t see any reason for the current policy issue, unless there is an emergency at hand.

“Unless it’s a minor thing like putting on a hangar door, anything relating to the airports ought to come before the authority first and then go to the Board of Supervisors,” Flynn said.

Long concedes that if county officials had been more open about their intentions, the situation might have turned out differently.

“If we had taken the opportunity to have a real process in place to review the pros and cons on it, there might have been a different outcome,” Long said.

But Flynn thinks there still would have been opposition to the program. Most were concerned with increased air traffic, noise and user fees, and decreased local control.

“It may have been shot down ultimately, but I think that people would have looked at the information in a way where the emotions were left out,” he said.